


Obtuse

by fireflysglow_archivist



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-09-06
Updated: 2003-09-06
Packaged: 2019-04-29 13:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14473923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireflysglow_archivist/pseuds/fireflysglow_archivist
Summary: First Kiss.





	Obtuse

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Firefly’s Glow](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Firefly%27s_Glow), and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project in 2018. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Firefly's Glow collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/fireflysglow/profile).

 

Obtuse

## Obtuse

### by Writingpathways

Obtuse 

The job had gone smooth. Real smooth and they'd been paid, more than they had earned even. And he was in the cockpit, in the chair staring out into the endless black. Serenity was flying. The problem was Mal didn't feel his usual glib self after getting paid. What he felt was out of sorts, angry and damn confused but also completely sure. More sure than he'd felt in a long time and that was why he was angry, confused and out of sorts. It just wasn't something that he'd seen coming but damn if he could turn it off now that he'd admitted it to himself. And if he was going to be honest he'd been feeling it for years now. When it started he couldn't tell a soul but somehow as the years past by he'd started to see River less as a freakish, eerie girl and more as an impossible, intelligent, beautiful woman. 

And he'd known before this latest job that he wanted her. Wet dreams and from time to time the complete inability to take his eyes off of her were tip-offs to that, but he'd been telling himself for...God it felt like forever that it wasn't anything but a physical attraction. River was just a kid. A kid? It was bullshit, he'd stopped talking around her a long time ago, he wanted her armed and ready to fight if he thought there even the slightest chance of trouble. She was possibly the most indispensable of his crew, even over Zo. Quick, smart, cautious and damn dangerous to the point of bone-chilling terror at times, and so damn bossy, stubborn and sexy. 

Mal groaned he was getting nowhere, he wasn't quelling the jealousy that was still burning inside of him. All he was doing was proving to himself that he'd been in love with her for well over a year if not from the moment he was born. This wasn't what he needed, he didn't need to be in love with a member of his crew. Let alone one that he couldn't hide it from. She already knew, he'd seen the comprehension in her eyes after he punched out the kid about to kiss her. The very idea of anyone's hands on her, any one but his own...he'd acted without thought and broke the kid's nose. 

She'd glared at him and he knew then and there that if she could kill by thought he'd be dead. She'd yelled for Simon and walked the kid into the ship - Mal's ship - without another glance at him. The kid left soon, with his father's - the client - profuse apologies for his sons behavior toward the young lady, but River remained silent. Her eyes were bullets every time they landed on him. And Mal couldn't explain why but he was sure that with her anger was confusion. He knew he was confused by how he'd kept the fact he was so far gone in love with her to himself for so gorram long. 

"Because you're an obtuse miscreant." 

"Don't read my mind, River." 

"Why not? Because it's an invasion of privacy? None of my business?" 

Mal slouched into the pilot's chair, he could feel her behind him but he closed his eyes not wanting to risk even seeing her reflection in ships windows. All his instincts told him that a trap was being set. But he walked into it anyway. "Yes." 

"And George? Is he your business." 

"The boy's nothing." 

"Am I your business?" 

"You're my crew," Mal spat out and he could see her eyes rolling in his mind's eye. 

"Is what I do when we aren't on a job your business?" 

"I'm thinking there's a theory that no it's not." Mal opened his eyes and swiveled the chair toward where he could feel River's eyes on him. He couldn't hide from her any longer it was a matter of pride and he had to know, had to see if her anger had faded at all. She was standing in the middle of the cockpit, her hands at her sides in one of the soft dresses she liked to wear while they were flying and her feet bare. She was looking at him but he wasn't sure if she was seeing him but her brow wasn't furrowed and her eyes were no longer hard. 

"I'm confused," she whispered. "You never act on what you feel for me. Ever. I can taste it sometimes, hard and true in my mouth and still you don't act. You close your eyes to your own reflections and we both pretend. Just fly, watch for trouble, hope for smooth and get the shiny money. Never admit, never give in to the fire that builds in the air between us." 

Us, Mal swallowed as the word flowed out of her and silence took over the cockpit. His thoughts going to memories of times when he thought he'd slip and do something he wouldn't allow himself to do. So many late night discussions when they were awake and sleepless and alone. Her voice and her riddles making as easy to understand as his own. Us had never occurred in his thoughts. He had never allowed it too, never even thought she could... 

"Obtuse," River whispered. 

"I asked y..." 

"Then don't interrupt me by thinking loudly," River snapped. "You don't stoke the fire, Mal. I don't know what to say or what to do. I know a million facts and I see thoughts and pictures from people's minds but I don't always comprehend. I lived in a big house, then I was abused and then I came here. Here where flying is peace and Serenity is everything...and then you ruin my chance at a first kiss, because, because you are jealous. Jealous but inactive. Passive and possessive." 

Mal was on his feet, his hands cupping River's face before thought appeared and by the time it did he was too close to kissing her to the fear squeezing his chest stop him. As he pressed their lips together River's hands flew up making Mal freeze wondering if she was going to shove but instead she gripped his shirt collar and pulled him into her and he breathed into her mouth in relief. 

#### If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Writingpathways


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